James Mann: It's Not Just D'Souza ... British People Think Obama Is a Kenyan Anti-Colonialist, Too
[James Mann has written three books on America’s relationship with China. He is an author-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.]
The assertion of Newt Gingrich and of the conservative author Dinesh D’Souza that President Obama’s actions can somehow be explained by a “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview has already been greeted with the ridicule it deserves.
But the funny thing is that while this theory (let’s call it the “Kenya paranoia”) is silly, it also isn’t entirely new with Gingrich or D’Souza. In fact, the two men were borrowing, modifying and taking to the extreme some bizarre ideas about Obama that have been aired, in less publicized ways, ever since the beginning of his presidency.
And I’m not talking here about simply the ideas of Republicans, the right wing or the political fringes. Rather, the Kenya paranoia has been showing up in the politest society, among journalists and even high-ranking diplomats.
In particular, the idea started with the British, those former colonialists, who have repeatedly invoked Kenya to explain every perceived slight from the Obama administration. If the Obama White House doesn’t always treat British leaders the way Ronald Reagan treated Margaret Thatcher, if Obama doesn’t give a Clinton-like hug to a British prime minister, if he doesn’t bow in front of Winston Churchill’s bust each morning, it must be because of Kenya.
The attendant euphemisms that accompany this idea are many. There is talk of Obama’s different roots, of his new perspective, of his purported lack of European traditions.
I first ran across the Kenya paranoia a few weeks after Obama was sworn in. Gordon Brown, then the British prime minister, was coming to Washington, and a British television reporter asked to interview me about Obama’s views of the world. “He has different roots than all other presidents,” the reporter said. “He doesn’t have ties to Europe.”
I laughed, not thinking he was serious. Obama’s mother was of British descent. He went to elite American schools, not exactly alien territory for British or European influences. Was he really somehow less “European” than George W. Bush, the determined Texan who didn’t like to travel?..
Read entire article at New Republic
The assertion of Newt Gingrich and of the conservative author Dinesh D’Souza that President Obama’s actions can somehow be explained by a “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview has already been greeted with the ridicule it deserves.
But the funny thing is that while this theory (let’s call it the “Kenya paranoia”) is silly, it also isn’t entirely new with Gingrich or D’Souza. In fact, the two men were borrowing, modifying and taking to the extreme some bizarre ideas about Obama that have been aired, in less publicized ways, ever since the beginning of his presidency.
And I’m not talking here about simply the ideas of Republicans, the right wing or the political fringes. Rather, the Kenya paranoia has been showing up in the politest society, among journalists and even high-ranking diplomats.
In particular, the idea started with the British, those former colonialists, who have repeatedly invoked Kenya to explain every perceived slight from the Obama administration. If the Obama White House doesn’t always treat British leaders the way Ronald Reagan treated Margaret Thatcher, if Obama doesn’t give a Clinton-like hug to a British prime minister, if he doesn’t bow in front of Winston Churchill’s bust each morning, it must be because of Kenya.
The attendant euphemisms that accompany this idea are many. There is talk of Obama’s different roots, of his new perspective, of his purported lack of European traditions.
I first ran across the Kenya paranoia a few weeks after Obama was sworn in. Gordon Brown, then the British prime minister, was coming to Washington, and a British television reporter asked to interview me about Obama’s views of the world. “He has different roots than all other presidents,” the reporter said. “He doesn’t have ties to Europe.”
I laughed, not thinking he was serious. Obama’s mother was of British descent. He went to elite American schools, not exactly alien territory for British or European influences. Was he really somehow less “European” than George W. Bush, the determined Texan who didn’t like to travel?..